Matching Weight
by diamondisis
Summary: Claire has always felt inferior to her older sister, now she has even more of a reason


Matching Weight

 **Chapter 1**

The giant rectangular pool outside of the country clubs is a beautiful shade of aquamarine blue, two streight blue and white lines line up vertically side by side.

The water glistens and sparkles especially at the very crack of dawn clear blue day in late june. The crack of dawn is always the time when Claire Millano does her early morning swim.

It is especially her favorite time to be at the poolside because usually at this time no one else is there at this time she is with her boyfriend but they are the only one's there, unless of course you count the life guard, of course she is such a good swimmer that she doesn't think she'd need a life gaurd. It is before people start doing lap swim and most definitely before the children begin their swim lessons.

Today she convinced her boyfriend of three years Lauren to come with her even though Lauren is in no way shape or form a morning person, in fact Lauren is the kind of person who would sleep in till 3:00 in the afternoon if he had his way and didn't have places to be and things to do. In a lot of ways she and Lauren really ballance eachother out. She and Lauren had a very interesting history. They started dating three years ago when she was 22 and he was 24.

At first Lauren had thought their relationship was perfect and there was absolutely nothing that could go wrong with it especially when he compared to his friends Ray and Johnny who were constantly fighting with their girlfriends, but then one day Lauren caught Claire cheating on him with another guy when he showed up at her house in a scary mask after she had said she didn't scare easily. What he didn't know was that Claire had a very logical reasoning behind this cheating. There had been a very sketchy seeming guy about her age at the country club whose name she didn't know who came in every day for a coktail and checked her out left to right up and down. Claire had tried to ignore it but one day she couldn't anymore.

"What do you want?" She finally asked one day after work you come here every day, what do you want?" He winked at her, "Isn't it obvious I want you sweet cheeks" "She didn't know why but she completely clammed up and was unable to tell him that she had a boyfriend "I want to have sex with you for a night that's all I want then I'll leave you alone, you'll never see me again"

"So you're saying that if you get me for one night" "That's wha I say sweet cheeks" She said. She knew she shouldn't have stayed but pretty soon she was getting drunk out of her mind and found herself getting confortable with this complete stranger and she swore he had given her something a little extra along with the alcohol because never had she felt so not in her right mind, before she knew what was happening they had taken the taxi over to her house and things went to shit. And the worst part of all. He wasn't even true to his word he still showed up every day at the cocktail lounge and she had to tell her manager and he had to call the police.

Even worse Lauren wasn't answering any of her calls, she couldn't figure it out. He hadn't known about that how could he possibly? Lauren should have confronted her about it? So what was stopping him? Just a huge case of profound apathy, he was too depressed to even care about anything. So he ghosted her. Ray and Johnny tried to get him back in the dating scene but Lauren said he wanted to never date again. He didn't want any other girl the only girl he wanted was Claire.

If he couldn't have Claire then he didn't want anything. He didn't want to do anything again in fact. While it was over with Johnny and his girlfriend Vanessa were history and clearly Lauren and Claire weren't together, Ray and Monica were still together and it was the two of them who had fixed the relationship. For three weeks streight all Lauren did was sleep in late and, eat tubs of ice cream, sit on the couch and play video games. One day Ray paid him a surprise visit which Lauren couldn't help finding quite rude.

"I don't remember inviting you" He told Ray. "You didn't" He says. "You don't just show up to someone's house uninvited"Lauren snapped turning up the volume. "Did you forget that this is my house too?" Ray says. It was kind of easy to forget that kind of thing when Ray was spending pretty much all of his time with Monica. "I'm your room mate and I'm also your buddie it's what buddies do they check in on their friends" "Well Friend's call!" "I don't see why I have to call you when this is my house too" He said. "Oh yeah I forgot man" Lauren said. Ray ignored him he knew his friend was suffering. "Man have you checked your cell phone like at all?"

If Lauren thought about it, he didn't even have his cell phone on. He shrugged. He then turned on his his phone. Turned out he got severel missed calls from Ray, and a text that said, comming over. "Well even if you did text, I didn't SAY you could come over did I" Ray turned off the system. Correction unplugged the system. Speaking of totally rude. "Hey man what did you do that for?" Lauren had asked, "I was just about to the highest level of Kingdom Hearts now I'm going to have to start all the way from the beginning" "You really need to leave the house" Ray said. "What for?" Lauren asks. "What's the point anymore?"

"Well" Ray said, "I'm taking you somewhere" "Like where" "Can't tell you it's a surprise" Ray said. "But I promise you you're going to like it" "I doubt it" Lauren had said. "I don't really like anything anymore" "That's the thing" Ray says, "You just have to get yourself out of that mind state buddy and try new things" Although it did take a great deal of convincing he was finally able to get Lauren off of the couch.  
Meanwhile Monica was busy working on Claire, she had dropped by at the country club where Claire worked as a cocktail mixer. Luckily it was her day off she was always a regular there and was spending her time by the poolside working on her tan and reading a Harlam Romance Novel. Ugh she was so shallow Monica couldn't stand it some times. Monica hated to interupt her when she looked so peiceful sunbathing. "Claire" She said. "You got a minute" "Of course" Claire said. "It's my day off"

"Okay look" Monica said, "um there's this thing I'm going to and I was wondering if you'd like to come with me" "A thing?" Claire had asked, "What kind of thing?" "Well just a thing" "Um sure?" Claire asked "When is it" "Well right now actually" Monica said. "Well that's kind of sudden don't you think?" Claire asked. "What's you're deal?" "You'll have to wait and see" Monica said, "But I promise you you're going to really like it"  
Lauren was confused when Ray pulled up in front of the brick building he had talked about a number of times, "Isn't this" "Yup that's right" Ray said. "Where they have your support group?" Ray nods again. "I thought this was couples therapy" Lauren said. "Didn't you say we were going to a bar or like a rave maybe?" Ray lifts one eye brow, "I didn't say any such thing of the sort did I?" "Well you sure did imply it" Lauren says, "No I don't think so" Ray said "Anyway no time to explain" Ray said.

"C'mon., you're my guest tonight that's how it is, they're always welcome to guests here" Just at that same moment. In walked Monica followed by Claire. Let's just say at first things didn't work out exactly how Ray and Monica planned, Claire and Lauren had both agreed that Ray and Monica were sick and twisted but at the end of the meeting Claire and Lauren found themselves alone together in the coridores, it was awkward because they hadn't been alone together in severel months.

They didn't know it at the time but that had been part of Ray and Monica's plan the whole time "That was kind of a fun meeting" She had said after a long moment of silence. He actually had to admit that it was very eventful. "Yup" He said. Silence once again. "So how come you've been ghosting me?" She asked after a while. He sighed heavily as he covered his eyes with his hands. "I caught you cheating on me, I don't see why you care about me when you have that other guy?" "Wait what, who?" she asked, "Don't play dumb with me. That guy I saw you with" He said. There was another long moment of silence.

"Oh my god Lor" She said after a while, "Were you? Spying on me? That's sick!" "No not really" Lauren said I'm your boyfriend I should be able to come over and surprise you when ever I want. He supposes that's kind of arbitrary to what he had said to Ray earlier about how he couldn't just drop in just because they were friends. "Well it doesn't matter because you have a new boyfriend" "He's not my boyfriend" Claire said "If you just listen to me, I'll explain" She told her story and realized it did sound ridiculous and pathetic and like she had no mind or will of her own. "I got to go" Lauren said. Ray and Monica were very Adiment that Claire and Lauren keep going to meetings, so they both reluctantly attended. Pretty soon they weren't mad at each other anymore which was progress, then they kind of became awkward aquiantances which was even better progress, then they became just normal aquaintances then friends then really good friends, then best friends and finally they were back to dating and have been together ever since. Also over the years Claire gained two new best friends out of the deal, Monica and Johnny's ex girl friend Vanessa who used to be Monica's room mate Claire had often times invited them over for a girls night in where they had chinese food, her favorite ice cream flavor cookie dough and painted eachother's nails, made rootbeer floats and watched the entire first season of Desperate Housewives. When Claire wasn't spending her time with Lauren she was spending time with her girl friends.

Claire only some times goes swimming with Lauren as Lauren is not really much of a swimmer it is always the same story she usually dives into the pool and swims all the way to the other end, while Lauren timidly puts his big toe in the water checking the temperature then slowly and gently climbs into the pool he is always way behind her,

"Hurry up slow poke" She always calls out to him and teases him as he doggy paddles his way to try to keep up with her. Then they have a spash fight and kiss romatically. Even though she is an avid member of the Burlington Golf and Country Club and can get in free since she has a job as a cocktail waitress she hardly ever takes Lauren to the pool usually this event takes place in many of the various lakes of Ontario at night, not at the pool at the crack of dawn It is mostly the same except something is different something is wrong. Usually she is way ahead of him way way ahead, but this time Lauren is right next to her, this can't be right it just can't. Now she feels like she is reliving one of her most common anxiety dreams.

Only it is usually not Lauren she is swimming with but her older sister Blair, who is 5 years older then her and yes that's right Blair and Claire. There parents clearly weren't thinking when they named her and her sister and they to this very day regret their decision. Except in the looks department, Blair with her big teeth and big eyes resembles a tall rabbit, and the fact that Claire has a jewlry store named after her (She doesn't think that anymore but she sure used to believe that until Blair had to go and burst her bubble at the age of seven) she had cried because even then she knew that she wasn't special enough.

Claire's perfect older sister has always outshined her at everything, but in the water Blair is hopeless she is an even worse swimmer than Lauren she couldn't swim if her life depended on it. Not in Claire's dream however, in Claire's dream Claire is like always inferior. In her dream, Blair is always way ahead of her while she struggles to keep up ahead of her. "Blair Wait" She always cries. Blaire does not wait she swims circles around her, "How did you get so good?" Claire asks, Blair just shrugs and swims the butterfly.

"Who me?" She asks switching to the side stroke, "I'm not even trying, I'm just swimming, that's the problem with you Claire you just try to hard" That was how things always were with Blair it seems she didn't ever try everything came naturally to her, when Claire had to work for things. A lot of times she grew up hearing from her mother the same thing over and over, why can't you do that "Blair could do it when she was your age" Or "Blair never had any problems with that" Every time Claire found something she was good at it always turned out that Blair could do it about 50 billion times better.

Maybe her mother had chosen the names on purpose because she was a lesser version of her sister Blair. Clearly that's what her mother wanted, that was clearly why she had always sighed her up for all AP Classes in High school and made sure she got all the teaches Blair had. The teacher's always knew her as "Blair's sister, Blair's much inferior sister her report cards were usually spotted with C's C minus's and even the occasional D+"

"This is unexceptable Claire" Her mother said every time she got a report card, "Your sister always got streight A's in every one of her classes, "You really need to try harder" "I will" She always promised, but she didn't instead she got more lascidasical and just kind of stopped trying. Hell it worked for Blair, Blair never tried, but she was born perfect. The worst parts were when the honor rolls from The University Of Victoria appeared in the Ontario Gazette. "Blair will never fail to impress me" Her mother said posting it on the fridge once again. "This could be you someday too Claire" She had said. "If only you applied yourself more and maybe I don't know raised your hand in class more, talked in class more faded into the background less"

"Where are you getting that information?" Claire had asked. Obviously her mother hadn't seen her in class. "I ran into your AP History teacher at the supermarket the other day" She said, "He said you are very sweet but he never hears a peep from you, he get's the sense that you're unhappy"

"I'm not" Claire assured her, even though she was most certainly unhappy. "Mom nobody talks in that class" Claire tried to explain, it's the first period of the day, no one's had their coffee yet" Her mother held up her hand clearly not wanting to hear any excuses. "Your sister always talked in her early morning classes" "Well maybe I'm not a morning person, besides I'm not the only one who's not a morning person, I shouldn't be the only one who he thinks is unhappy" "Well I wouldn't know about the other students" Her mother said "But class participation is a huge part of class" Claire was never a leader, she was a follower, if the other students kept their mouths shut in class, she wasn't going to be the first person to speak up, she was going to keep her mouth shut along with them, besides she was completely lost in that class just like in every other class

The next time her report card came her grades were deplorable and the teacher's had not a single good thing to say about her "It's just too hard" She had whined. "If you aren't going to make good grades then no more swim team" her mother had said at dinner which was a really big blow to her. "Okay fine" Claire had said, "

Then I'll just switch into regular classes" Her mother was mortified how could she even think of doing such a thing. "You will do no such thing" Her mother said. "You're too hard on her Chloe" the girl's jolly laid back father had said that night. If Blair was her mother's favorite, Claire was clearly her father's favorite. "I don't think I'm hard on her at all Randy" she had said. "She's really struggling and I think she would be much happier in regular classes" Randy had said. And she was, she passed with flying colors and got streight A's but that wasn't good enough for someone like Chloe Milano.

Also it didn't help that Blair was just plain and simply a bitch. When Claire told her about Lauren she had wrongly assumed Lauren was a girl which was really not too big of an assumption since Lauren is a girl's name and people were always teasing him about that, she gave her a hard time about being lesbian, she was always giving her a hard time about everything, and she secretly enjoyed seeing her struggle to keep up with her in the pool. At the pool in the water she was superior, Swimming was something that came naturally to Claire. Swimming was her thing and her thing only.

According to her parents, when she was just a baby she fell into the deep end of a pool during a party at the neighbors house, and she instantly started to swim she in fact swam all the way to the shallow end of the pool. Claire isn't true if the story is true or not but she likes the sound of it if it is.

She soon comes to notice that Lauren is way in front of her, how did that happen already, she is struggling even more. A sickening feeling seeps through her body. It starts in her stomach first a dull pain then a sharp pain. She pinches her self. This is no nightmare. This is real life. For unexplainable reason she is exhausted, out of breath and every bone, muscle and joint in her body hurts. She feels a sharp pain in her chest and she is now panicked, very panicked, is she having a heart attack? How could that be? She is 25 years old and a very healthy 25 year old for that matter.

A person who rarely get's sick and was certainly not sick in any way shape or form when she got to the pool that morning, the rotten feeling just hit her like a pound of bricks as soon as she dove in the water for some unexplainable reason. Lauren turns around sensing that she is clearly struggling.

"You okay Claire?" He asks. Claire breathes heavily. "Will you wait for me?" She calls to Lauren her voice coming out breathless. She is really ashamed of herself for asking such a question.

"Wait for you?" Lauren asks, "Yeah sure you okay?" He says. He doesn't get it, usually she would be on her twentieth lap or something like that. "What's wrong?" He finally asks as she catches up with him weezing for breath and with blood shot eyes. "Nothing I'm fine" She says, even though she feels like she could possibly be dying, her lungs feel like they are filling with water. "You sure?" Lauren asks. "Yeah fine" She says, just need to rest. "Claire you need to get out of the pool right now you might drown" Claire huffs and puffs. "Are...you...kidding?" She asks, "drown, me? never, I've been swimming since I was just seven months" Suddenly she starts sinking.

"CLAIRE!" Lauren shreiks. grabbing her firmly by the arm "Holy shit" "I'm fine" She says. She then tries to swim but feels like she could litterally keel over and die and holy shit it is the worst time to be in the water especially in the middle of the pool for god's sake and it is not a small pool either, it is an olympic size pool, she has a long way to go before she get's to the deep end. "Lauren!" She cries. "SOS" "Claire?" he immidiatly swims over to her. "It's okay Claire Bear" He says grabbing on to her. "I got you, you'll be okay" She coughs up water. "Grab on to my neck" He says, "I'll swim us back" it is not long before he hears a splash and feels the release of the hands around her neck. "Claire. CLAIRE!" He shouts. then calls out to the life guard.

"SOS! SOS! SOS!" He cries. Only the way he is saying it, it sounds like it's all one word, "Sauce, Sauce, Sauce" He cries out. The Life guard instantly dives into the pool and grabs Claire just before she is about to sink to the bottom and hit her head. "I got her" He says as he carries her to the surface. "Thank you so much Brad" Lauren says reading his name tag on his lanyard. "All right Claire breath" He says, doing compressions on her chest. She vomits a ton of chlorine filled water as well as her typical Unicorn Frappicino, that she get's every morning before arriving at the pool and has gotten since they were new at star bucks at the end of April. She then proceeds to have an epic coughing fit "Are you all right Claire?" Brad asks. He knows her name considering the fact that she is a fixture at the club. Why did that have to happen their in front of someone she knows? Why couldn't it have been at one of the lakes or some other pool, hell their are plenty of other pools in Ontario besides this one "Kill me now litterally" She says,

"Litterally?" Brad asks, "Did you just say literally? I don't think I'd look like a very good lifeguard if I killed you now literally now would I?" "She doesn't mean it" Lauren says. She does mean it actually she as a matter a fact wishes she just drowned then and there. Claire sits up and breaks into loud hysterical sobs as she hugs Lauren close to her.

"Put me out of my misery" She cries. "It's okay Claire Bear" He says. "It's not" She sobs so loud she is practically screaming. She is one of those rare people who can manage to cry uneligantly and still manage to be beautiful even when snot is running down her nose and drool is running from her mouth "I'm supposed to be a good swimmer" "Hey don't sweat it Claire Bear" Brad says, Lauren gives him a sharp glare, only he get's to call his girl friend Claire Bear. "Even the best swimmers drown sometimes. It happens" "It doesn't happen to me" She says wiping off the tears that can not stop falling from her cheeks no matter how hard she stops them, today had started out so normally, why does she feel like she ran a 50 billion marathon or like she was hit by a 50 billion truck.

"I come here every day and this never happens I'm a really good swimmer" "Well maybe that's your problem then" Brad suggests. Maybe you're over excerting yourself there's this thing called moderation you know" although he was being nice and understanding before now his voice is firm and almost somewhat angry. She does not feel like a stupid educational lecture. Just then the manager and Claire's boss Jim comes out. "I heard the entire conversation" He says.

"Are you all right Claire?" "Yeah she's okay" Lauren says. "No" Claire cries, "Oh my god this is the kill me nowest situation ever kill me now" She hopes that any second now she will wake up in her big fluffy bed and then she will go to the pool for realzies and swim her morning laps for realizies. Jim raises one eye brow at her. She blushes she is pretty damn embarrassed by her use of kill me now. "Okay I guess no one has to kill me now forget I said that but do you think maybe one of you could slap me now?"

"Slap you?" Jim asks. raising an eye brow. "Please?" She begs. Lauren slaps her hard in the face. She does not wake up in her soft cozy bed, she is still at the pool. She comes to a sickening realization that this is not a bad dream it is a bad reality. A god damn bad fucking reality. She also comes to the realization that this is not going to be the last see's of Brad or Jim, she has to go into work at 10:00. Maybe it will be forgotten by then and it won't be the hot gossip around the club maybe no one will know. Who is she kidding? This is a country club, not just any country club this is Burlington Golf and Country Club, one of the most Gossipy areas in town. Whenever anyone does anything embarrassing it is the hot topic of the week you are basically a celebrity if you do something embarrassing there. It doesn't matter if it's something that a person does when they're at work or not at work One time one of Claire's co worker's a dorky young woman named Beth Emma who acted like she was from the eighteen hundreds and had a similar personality to Anne of Green gables or Pollyanna came to Kareoke night at the cocktail lounge and was given a pot brownie and made pretty much the biggest fool of herself in the history of ever. Her friends laughed hysterically and told her that it was not a pot brownie at all it was just a normal brownie. She didn't think anyone from the Country club was their that night but unfortunately a couple of people were and within a couple of weeks she was the butt of everyone's jokes. A week later Beth Emma unexplicably dissappeared and no one had seen her sense. People had been spreading nasty rumors about her ever since. Claire doesn't think that almost drowning really qualifies as same thing as what Beth Emma did, she probably wouldn't be the butt of everyone's joke, if anything she would probably just be getting an all you can eat banquet of sympathy from everyone and right now that is just way too much for her to stomach, also she is probably going to have to come up with some sort of logical reason for why the hell that happened, she is a great swimmer everyone at Burlington Golf and Country Club knows that because everyone knows everyone's business and all that, and she's got nothing.

"I just want to go home" She says. That's all she wants she just wants get into bed and wrap herself into a cacoon made out of blankets and sleep the rest of the day away but she knows she can't do that she has to go to work at 10:00. She shivers as she follows Lauren to the car. The walk is trecherous. It shouldn't be it less then a quarter of a block and it is flatt.

"Couldn't you have parked closer?" She weezes furiously like she has suddenly developed a case of Asthma or she is suddenly really out of shape neither one of those are the case, but it could be because her lungs are so full of fluid.

"You all right?" Lauren asks. "I don't know I'm just really warn out I guess" "Piggy back?" He asks. "Yeah sure" She says. "Hold on this time" He says not wanting a repeat of what happened in the pool because it would be quite a bit worse if she let go of him and hit her head on the pavement. She feels like a really pathetic loser right now.

They are silent in the car for a really long period of time. "Oh god" She finally says,

"Kill me now litterally" "You've said that already" Lauren says. "Well It's true. You know that Meme kill me now" "I love that Meme" Lauren says, back when all he did was sit on the couch all day especially the kill me now meme that was one of his favorites. "Well maybe there should be a new one called kill me now literally" He smiles even though he isn't sure whether she was joking or not. "Today I almost drowned in front of my co worker and my boss, I work at a country club where everyone gossips. These are people who I see every day. I'm usually A really good swimmer. So kill me now litterally" She knows it sounds sick and twisted it really does.

"Hey look babe" Lauren says, "If you need to you can call in sick maybe skip a week of work" "I'm really not sick" She says, even though she is starting to feel sicker by the second even though it is clearly late June she is freezing but at the same time she also feels hot all over, is it possible to be hot and freezing at the same time? Apparently it is since that is what she is experiencing. "I had a near drowning instance, I don't think that nessecarily qualifies as being sick"

"Then take a mental health day" She realizes that it is just her job, her career is, well her carreer is competitive swimming. Just then a sickening thought seeps through her head one that sends chills down her spine and she was already freezing. If she couldn't even swim a quarter of a lap at the pool today how could she possibly be able to compete in the big leagues. How would that be remotely possible if a walk across the parking lot was such a work out. It's the end of her carreer.

More and more chills. Her big meet up is on the first of July which is only in two days and which she is already dreading because just like every year her family is having a get together in just like every other year she will have to feel inferior to Blair. But now she feels even more inferior then ever before. Blair is a terrible swimmer and everything but at least she never drowned from swimming only half a lap. It saddens her to realize that Blair is just better then her in every way now even the one thing she has going for her. Her teeth chatter like crazy. "Claire honey are you cold?" "No It's okay I"m fine" She says.

"Sweetie your shivering" He says "And your lips are turning blue" "I'm fine" She says. "No you're not" He says. "No you're right" She says, then in a tiny ashamed voice, "Would you mind turning the air conditioning off?" She knows it is a ridiculous thing to ask for considering the fact that it is 90 something degrees outside and she doesn't want him to get heat stroke or die or something. "Of course" He says. "I could do that" He is such a nice guy what did she ever do to deserve him.

"No really" You don't have to. "Hey it's not too much longer of a drive" He says, "I think we'll be okay" "Is that better?" He asks. "Yeah thanks" she says leaning her head against his shoulder. She suddenly starts weeping all over again. her body vibrates along with the car engine "Hey" He says, "Don't worry about it, it's fine it's really not a big deal" "It's not that" She chokes out. "Canada Day" She sobs. "Yeah what of it" "I can't deal with it" She cries. "I have the big competition that day" "Oh" He says and falls silent for a while. "Honey I'm sure you'll be okay by then I'm sure you just weren't having one of your best days I'm sure it happens to everyone you heard what Brad said" "It doesn't happen to me" She wipes her tears.

"And then I have to deal with Blair oh god" She moans. "Blair used to be more tollerable back when I had one thing that I was better then her at, but now I have nothing. I'm just not extrodinary. I'm not special anymore there's nothing that stands out about me anymore. I'm just ordinary. I'm boring. I'm average" He strokes his fingers through her long blonde hair. "Why do you always do this Claire Bear?" He asks. "Do what?" She asks, "What am I doing that I apparently always do?" "Why are you always comparing yourself to your sister? Just why does it always have to be about Blair all the time why can't you just for once try to stay on your own yoga mat" She looks at him confused. "Yoga?" She asks, "Who's talking about yoga, Blair was always better at it then me anyway"

And there just like that there she goes again. He face palms. "Look I'm sorry he says, I'm just tired of you doing this all the time. Look I don't mean yoga literally I mean like think of your life as a yoga matt everyone has their own mission in life and you should concentrate on your own instead of just trying to compete with Blair."

"I have no yoga matt" She says bitterly. "Well everyone does" He says. He clears his throat, "It's something I read about once anyway if you don't like yoga why don't you think of it this way stay in your own pool lane" She does not want to talk about the pool it depresses her way to much that she can't swim anymore. "I'm not sure if this matters to you or anything but I definitely like you more then Blair" She smiles through her tears. "You're definitely prettier" She smiled again that was always something people had said, Claire got all the beauty and Blair got all the everything else. But beauty isn't enough what's beauty compared to talent? "You're nicer then Blair" He says. "Blair's a total fucking bitch and lot's of people hate her"

It was true pretty much everyone hated her. Good at everything she was. Popular she was not, not that she ever cared. She got along fine in highschool with her close group of friends she had since elementry school. Claire had been just the opposite. In high school she was a social butterfly, she was the kind of person who was friends with everyone and floated in between every crowd, every day she would find a new group of people to mingle with. In books about teenage popularity it had said parents should feel blessed if their daughter was a "floater" and that was the best way to be popular, but Claire thought it was also one of the best ways to feel lonely and she never really got much of a chance to make any real friends because she never settled down in one group for long enough.

A lot of times she would get lost in the crowd with her very low key personality. The biggest issue was that it sort of made her feel like she was having a bit of an identity crisis which is what a lot of people go through in high school except for perfect well adjusted Blair, she knew exactly who she was in high shool Popular or not popular Blair had real solid friends. Lauren does have a good point she does need to stay on her own yoga mat. If only there was something special about her yoga mat. "I think a mental health day would do you some good" Lauren says, "Just stay home" "I think it's too late to call in sick now" She says and it is, they have certain rules about when and how to call into work sick, you are supposed to call at least 6 hours in advanced. "Damn well good luck" He says,

"I think I'll probably be okay" She says.  
She takes a restless nap on the couch for 3 hours until her cell phone alarm goes off. "Here goes nothing" She thinks to herself, now she will have to be their from 10:00 till 5:00 "Claire" Jim greets her as soon as she shows up, "I thought for sure you'd be a no show today" "Really?" Claire asks, "Why did you think that?" "I just thought you'd be too embarrassed to show up for work" So staying at home would have been an option. "I thought you wouldn't have been able to handle all the gossip and all that" "So I could have stayed home if I wanted to?" She asks, "I could have taken a mental health day?" Jim laughs a loud generous laugh as he gives her a large pat on the shoulder. "I'm just messin with you kid" He says tassling her hair. "Now why don't you go mix up some Mimosa's and Bloody Mary's you have some thirsty customers coming in real soon" "Sure" She says.

Time goes by and she starts to realize her mind is elsewhere it is only 12:00 in the day and already she has made countless mistakes. "Excuse me" Says a very snotty woman in her 40's "I asked for a Paradise and this is not a Paradise" "Huh?" Claire asks. "Paradise is supposed to have Apricot Brandy, and this just has regular Brandy" Compared to some of the other mistakes she has made this is pretty minor especially compared to putting sugar crystals on the rims around the bloody mary glasses or putting green olives in a little girl's shirly temple or a pickle spear in somebody's strawberry daquari based on absolutely nothing whatsoever "I'm sorry" Claire said, "I can fix that for you" She then reaches for what she thinks is the Apricot Brandy. "What are you doing lady?" The woman asks. "That's Burban" Claire looks at the bottle. So it is. She is ashamed to learn that the Burban is in fact nowhere near the Apricot Brandy. She turns to one of her co workers.

"You seen the Apricot Brandy?" Her coworker just gives her an odd look, points and then rolls her eyes. "Oh" Claire says. She laughs a little too hard. "Duh I knew that." She then pours a little too much of the brandy. "Ugh can't you do anything right?" She says. She picks up her purse, this is terrible service here I'm leaving" Claire bites down hard on her lip. Jim comes out to check on her. "Everything all right Claire?" He asks. "What do you mean?" She asks. "Well it seem's like your just really off your game today, I got a lot of complaints about you." "Really?" Claire asks. "Like what" "Well I'm not going to go into details he says but a lot of customers said they were very unhappy. This isn't like you Claire are you feeling all right?" She really isn't.

"I guess I'm just distracted" She says. "Well when you're at work you're supposed to concentrate on work stuff leave your outside issues to think about outside work." "I'll try" She says. The rest of the day goes by much smoother, she is able to get people's orders right and for the most part there are no more complaints about her after all what is there to complain about, but then the thing she had worried about most happens. "Thank you Claire" A young woman about her age says. "Wait a second Claire" She says.

"Y'yeah?" Claire says, "You're not that Claire are you?" "I don't know" Claire says, "That depends, what Claire would that be?" "A lot of people are talking about this girl named Claire who had a near drowning incident earlier this morning" Had people been talking? Claire had been so preoccupied with everything that she hadn't been paying the slightest bit of attention, or maybe all of the gossip that was going on just hadn't taken place within the cocktail lounge. "Oh well Claire's a really common name you know" She says "And that couldn't have possibly been me" I say, "I'm a really good swimmer, I'm on a swim team and everything The Canadian Dolphins" "Really?" She asks. "Oh my god, I'm sorry I'm really embarrassed now" "That's okay" Claire says. Just then one of Claire's co worker's a young man named Billy comes back from his lunch break. "Hey Claire" He says, "I heard all about your near drowning incident."

Billy suffers from ADHD, Tourette's syndrome and an Intellectual dissability and is forced to work along side a job coach or life coach or some kind of other adult. At a certain time durring the day his pills start to wear off and clearly they have right now. "She almost drowned in the pool this morning, I heard Brad and Jim talking about it" Claire looks helplessly thankfully Billy's job coach helps her out big time, she really owes her on this one. "Okay Billy" She says, "It's time for you to take your second dose of your pills" He says, "But she did" He insists. "C'mon Billy" She says. She had said the same thing yesterday when Billy went on and on about some Sci Fi movie or maybe it was a dream he had or maybe something that really happened who knows with Billy it was definitely something involving Alien invasion nonsense. "So that was you?" The girl asks. "No of course not" Claire says, "Billy just pulls things out of his ass all the time, he get's really cuckoo when his medications wear off" "Awe" The girls says. "I'd like a dirty martini" The girl says.

"One dirty martini coming up" Claire says. "What are you doing?" The women asks, "That is so not how you make a dirty martini lady" "I know how to make a dirty martini" Claire says, "I've worked here for three years it's my specialty" "Really you pour pickle brine into vodka?" "No you pour green olive juice into tequilla everyone knows that" "Well that's not what you're doing" She says. Claire is horrified when she looks at her concoction. What is with her and pickles today? "Oh god" She says. "Ch' yeah" The girl says, "Have a nice day" She says.  
A couple of minutes later the clock reads 2:40 and Jim calls her into his office. "Claire I'd like to talk to you about something" He says. Her stomach turns a back flip and then a forward flip. "Yes?" She asks. "Claire I'm letting you go" He says. "You mean? You mean I'm fired?" "I'm letting you go for the day" He says,

"You're obviously not present mentally so just, just go home I hope you get some rest and take good care of yourself" "It's okay" She says, "I think I"ll stay" "I don't think so Claire" Jim says. "You've just been making so many mistakes today and making so many people unhappy. I'll see you tomorrow hopefully you'll have your head together by then


End file.
